Tag: Tensions

LEIDSCHENDAM - The tribunal set up to try the killers of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri insisted on Tuesday on keeping its first indictment under wraps as fears of violence rose on the streets of Beirut. The prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon warned that speculation on the indictment which he submitted on Monday and is widely believed to implicate Hezbollah, would be "counter-productive".
"This is the first step in our collective quest to end impunity in

LAHORE - Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan expressed hope that Sardar Latif Khan Khosa's appointment as Punjab governor will help reduce political confrontation in Punjab.
Talking to journalists after attending Justice Javed Iqbal's parents' Qul on Thursday, Aitzaz said Sardar Khosa was a senior lawyer and hopefully he will develop good relations between the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), reducing the existing tensions between them.

ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast marked a fearful Christmas on Saturday after West African leaders threatened military action to force defiant strongman Laurent Gbagbo to cede power to his rival Alassane Ouattara.
The pair have been locked in a political stand-off for almost a month after both claimed to have won the November 28 presidential election, but mounting international pressure may have brought the crisis to a turning point.
Christmas was a sad milestone for Ivory Coast, where

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council is to meet Sunday over mounting Korean tensions as US troubleshooter Bill Richardson negotiates in Pyongyang to avoid military disaster threatened by North Korea. Richardson put a series of proposals to top North Korean officials in tough meetings after South Korea said it would proceed with a live-fire drill on a frontline island despite strongly worded threats of retaliation from the North.
"It's a very, very tense situation, a crisis

WASHINGTON - The US wants India and Pakistan to reduce tensions between them, the White House has said, insisting that the Obama administration would continue to encourage the two countries to improve their ties.
"The tensions between the two countries are something that the president discussed with each country when he visited leaders in India or called up leaders in Pakistan. And he will continue to address that and take steps to ease any of that tension," White House Press

BEIJING
China refused to say on Thursday whether Premier Wen Jiabao will meet Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan at a regional summit this month, and a Chinese diplomat accused Japanese foreign affairs minister of rekindling ill-will.
The swipe at Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara by Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue exposed the prickly tensions that still dog ties between Asia's two biggest economies, despite their efforts to overcome a maritime dispute.

Beijing: Recriminations over currencies echoed worldwide on Friday ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, whose loose monetary policies are blamed by China and others for destabilising capital flows.
Beijing kept up the heat on the United States, saying Washington should not make China a scapegoat for its own problems by constantly pressing for a swifter rise in the yuan.
Speaking hours before the US Treasury Department is due to deliver its semi-annual

A majority of commercial and business centres in Karachi remained closed on Friday as residents mourned the loss of life in Thursday's suicide attacks on the shrine of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi.
Various political and religious parties, including the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat (ASWJ) announced mourning and appealed to the citizens to remain calm.
The city's usually jam packed roads wore a deserted look, as people remained indoors and little or no traffic plied the roads.